Saturday, March 14, 2015

The Los Angeles Superior
Court lifted a temporary restraining order that prevented Kurt “Big Boy”
Alexander from joining the air staff of the new Real 92.3 (KRRL). Emmis
Broadcasting had sought the order and a preliminary injunction (denied by the
court) after Alexander left Power 106 to join iHeartMedia’s Real.

Emmis’ position was that
they had the final right of refusal as well as the ability to meet any offer
made by competitors. They also stated that they had invested heavily in
Alexander, in effect making him the star that he is.

The court disagreed, and
Alexander should be in place at Real waking Los Angeles from his new home as of
this week.

New PD

Keith Cunningham is the
newest program director to make his way through the revolving PD door that is
KLOS (95.5 FM). He replaces Derek Madden, who was promoted to run a station in
Minneapolis, KXXR.

The revolving door of PDs
-- Cunningham is the third at the station in three years, including almost a
year with no PD at all after Jack Silver was let go in 2012 -- is an expression
of how bad things have gotten at the aging rocker. I’ve seen this before at
stations that lost their way. Most dramatically, it parallels what happened with
former competitor KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM), which went through numerous
programmers after the legendary Sam Bellamy was forced out ... none of whom
understood what she did and why it worked.

For the most recent
ratings, KLOS found itself at a 2.0 share, behind The Sound’s 3.4, Jack-FM’s
3.2, KROQ’s 2.9 and 98.7’s 2.5.

The problem has much to do
with competition that never existed before. KLOS has for years played rock form
the 1970s ... I used to joke that listening to KLOS today is the same as
listening to the station when I was in junior high and high school ... the music
is the same. And it worked for a long time ... back when stations like KRTH
(101.1 FM) were playing hits from the 1950s and ‘60s.

Now its a different era ...
you can hear essentially the same music on Jack, KRTH, The Sound, and KOLA (99.9
FM), all of which have done a better job at staying fresh-sounding. The Sound,
for example, throws in “ah-ha” songs you haven’t heard in a while. And they’ve
hired some of KLOS’ best talent to play those songs -- Rita Wilde, Joe Benson,
and Cynthia Fox. KRTH has the upbeat “Boss Jock” image with great DJs and
exciting jingles. Jack has the variety and KOLA has a playlist that eclipses
most of the others.

KLOS? Not so much. Stale
might best describe it, though that sounds far more harsh than I intend. On the
positive side - it IS a heritage station and it does have a name. I hope new
programmer Cunningham takes the time to learn the history of the station and its
contribution to Southern California radio. Perhaps he can freshen up the music,
and even take the station back to the present. It certainly would be nice to
have an album rocker that plays current music not heard on 98.7 or KROQ (106.7
FM). Fans of Sirius/XM’s The Pulse know what I am talking about.

What I really expect
to happen? Nothing. That’s been the course for years, and I am not sure why it
would change now.